Free World Dialup
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| File:FWD logo.png | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Voice over IP |
| Founder | Jeff Pulver Brandon Lucas Izak Jenie Jefferey Woods |
| Defunct | 2008 (free service), 2010 (paid version) |
| Fate | defunct, domain was advertising siptosip.net in 2010, is now reassigned |
FWD (originally Free World Dialup) was a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network and business venture owned by Pulver.com, Inc. and founded in 1994 by Jeff Pulver, Brandon Lucas, and Izak Jenie. It appears to have ceased operations in 2010.[1]
The service provided voice communications between its subscribers worldwide, based on Internet standards. Limited inter-connections to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) provided users the ability to receive direct-dialed calls from PSTN-landline users, as well as place calls to toll-free numbers in the United States and other countries.
Pursuant to a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on February 12, 2004, the Wireline Competition Bureau considered FWD to be an information service rather than a telecommunications service.[2] This ruling followed a petition by Pulver.com on February 5, 2003 seeking a declaration of this nature.[citation needed] A similar petition by AT&T remains under consideration.[citation needed]
On September 27, 2005, the company changed its name from Free World Dialup to FWD.[3] A servicemark for the new name was granted on April 20, 2004. According to the registration record, the servicemark was not an acronym: the letters stood for nothing at all. The company later removed all references to Free World Dialup from their website, although the domain name www.freeworlddialup.com still resolved to the site until 2010.
FWD was connected to other VoIP networks by IPeerX, a VoIP peering company.
Free World Dialup has closed open enrollment of new members to focus on HD content and services.[4]
Annual charge
On August 8, 2008, the company announced they would charge a $30 (US) annual membership fee.[5] Following the implementation of a membership fee the service ran into technical issues eventually resulting in it going offline completely.
FCC decision
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps was quoted[citation needed] as stating the following upon the FCC decision to characterize FWD's service as an information service: "Despite attempts to characterize this Order as limited to the specific facts of Pulver.com's FWD, I am concerned that the decision speaks much more expansively. By deciding the statutory classification of Pulver.com's service as an interstate information service, the Order raises a host of questions about the continuing relevance of those most fundamental telecommunications policy objectives that Congress has entrusted to this Commission."
This Service is shut down
Please note that this company does not offer the VoIP Service any more and appears to be shut down. The domain's web content was gone as of March 30, 2010.
References
- ^ http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Free+World+Dialup
- ^ "FCC Rules on Pulver's Free World Dialup VOIP Service". Tech Law Journal. Retrieved November 13, 2005.
- ^ "Free World Dialup renamed to FWD". The Jeff Pulver Blog. Retrieved November 13, 2005.
- ^ "Why SIP to SIP VoIP?". Free World Dialup. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
Free World Dialup closed open enrollment for SIP registration and membership in order to focus on High Definition (HD) VoIP content and services.
- ^ Pulver, Jeff (2008-08-08). "FWD moving to $30 annual membership fee". Retrieved 2008-08-08.
External links
- www.freeworlddialup.com (Official website on the Wayback Machine, the domain appears to have been reassigned as an individual blog)
- Pulver.com, official site